The Relationships Among Taiwan Ethnic Groups Under Cultivation In Qing Dynasty

In the period of Qing Government ruling Taiwan (1683—1895), the residents of Fujian and Guangdong province swarmed into Taiwan to cultivate by means of obtaining passports or running a blockade, on purpose of searching for a living or getting profits. The entering of the Hans made aborigines there, plains aborigines especially confronted with conflict and challenge which is unprecedented before so as to be faced with a keen changes of the times. This dissertation focusing on the use of the folk data such as contracts and inscriptions, abandoning selfish departmentalism of the Hans, in perspective of a "Bottom-up" research method, along with the course of the development of various regions in Taiwan and the clues which plains aborigines contacted with the Hans , migrated Puli and Houshan and contacted with mountainy aborigines, discourses of the interaction of ethnic groups during land cultivation in Puli ,Yilan and Houshan, and on this basis discussing external forces which impacted the relationship between plains aborigines and the Hans, changes which were caused by the Hans' entering, and the reasons of the decline of plains aborigines.The article argues that although it happened that the Hans took up the land of aborigines in an improper manner by force or by fraud in Qing Dynasty, the transferring of land between the Hans and plains aborigines was based on tenancy system, complying with the operating rules of the socio-economic system. Therefore ,land from plains aborigines flowing the Hans was because of the differences of economic and cultural levels. During the Qing dynasty, plains aborigines and the Hans kept in peace mainly, conflicting with each other only an interlude. In additional, the frequency, intensity and destruction of the conflict between plains aborigines and the Hans were not only less than the fightings with weapons among the Hans , but also less than the struggles among aborigines. The government had been attempting to control the relationships of ethnic groups in Taiwan, However, its "ethnic groups separating" and "protecting aborigines and their possessions" policy, which had little effect, ran counter to the prevailing socio-economic conditions. The Hans' cultivation surely caused damages to plains aborigines to some extent, but changed the production form and civilized social lives of plains aborigines at the same time. In all, the decline of plains aborigines was mainly because of the exchanges of economy and culture between people, not due to the oppression of the Hans.